Gomma Grant winners

“A lot of my work has undertones of female sexuality and ritual, because photography was a place where it was okay to explore those things,” says Tabitha Barnard, the oldest of four sisters raised in a close-knit, religious community in rural Maine. “In photographing my sisters, and in trying to find a private place to do that, we kind of found this escape. I could always just tell my parents it was make-believe.”

Barnard has just won the 2018 Gomma Grant with this work, which she’s titled the Cult of Womanhood and which has previously been featured on bjp-online. Second prize went to Vladimir Vasilev with Nocte Intempesta, which was shot at night in a small city in Normandy, France. Fatima Abreu Ferreira took Third prize with How to disappear completely, “a work of struggle, obsession and complete hallucination” shot over two years in the photographer’s home town. Yorgos Yatromanolakis, meanwhile, won an Honourable mention for The Splitting of the Chrysalis & the Slow Unfolding of the Wings, which was also shot back home in the Greek island of Crete and which has also been featured on bjp-online.

© Tabitha Barnard

The Gomma Prix Award went to Elena Subach with Babusi, a series which considers elderly Ukrainian women at a time when fast-evolving technology seems to be pushing the generations further apart. Best Color Documentary went to Karl Mancini with Amores Perros, which shows poor young people living in an impoverished neighbourhood in Buenos AiresBest Best Black & White Documentary to Caleb Stein with Down by the Hudson, which also shows an area afflicted by poverty – Poughkeepsie, a small city in upstate New York.

Valerio Polici won Best Daily Life Story with Interno, while Jens Schwarz won Best Color Picture for Themmuns, which was shot in Northern Ireland. Best Black & White Picture went to Tommy Nease with Microcosm, while the Gomma Rising Talent Prize was taken by Marie Tomanova with Young American. The Gomma Grant has been going since 2014, and has picked up a reputation for finding cutting-edge and emerging work.

www.gommagrant.com

From Nocte Intempesta © Vladimir Vasilev
How to disappear completely © Fatima Abreu Ferreira
From The Splitting of the Chrysalis & the Slow Unfolding of the Wings © Yorgos Yatromanolakis
Bubasi © Elena Subach
Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. The guys play in the street keeping tight each other with the hands. The only way to escape their daily horrible condition is love and stay together. They share everything: joy, pain, violence, short moments of happyness. Their relationship gives them strenght and confort from the lack of affects from the families and support from society. © Karl Mancini
From Down by the Hudson © Caleb Stein
Interno © Valerio Polici
Girls group, 11th Night Conway St bonfire celebrations, Protestant Loyalist Shankill area, Belfast, Northern Ireland, July 2017. From the series Themmuns © Jens Schwarz
From Microcosm © Tommy Nease
Young American © Marie Tomanova
Diane Smyth

Diane Smyth is the editor of BJP, returning for a second stint on staff in 2023 - after 15 years on the team until 2019. As a freelancer, she has written for The Guardian, FT Weekend Magazine, Creative Review, Aperture, FOAM, Aesthetica and Apollo. She has also curated exhibitions for institutions such as The Photographers Gallery and Lianzhou Foto Festival. You can follow her on instagram @dismy